The results from the five-day event were tallied by Kroger – where monetary and non-perishable donations were collected across the county – and totaled more than 318 tons of food.

“It makes us a little speechless. It just really shows how engaged our community is and that also the matching gift donors who stepped forward and challenged the community, we’re so grateful for them,” said Schlitt, director of development for the Ann Arbor-based nonprofit.

“...We wouldn’t have gone this far over without their generosity.”

The 318 tons of food collected breaks the previous high of about 260 tons collected through the drive in 2009, and is more than double the amount of food collected during last year’s event.

“We’re growing every year and the funds raised from this have helped us provide food into January and February, and we’re now able to stretch those dollars even further,” Schlitt said.

“The dollars generated from this food drive will help us make purchasing decisions that will help us stretch food even further into March and help to make sure those shelves don’t go empty longer than we have historically.”

Ann Arbor’s 107one (WQKL-FM) was on hand hosting the food drive with live broadcasts from the Westgate Kroger location at 400 S. Maple Rd.

The station’s Morning Drive host and music director Martin Bandyke was participating as a host in his eight Rockin’ for Hunger event.

Bandyke said that as the donations poured in, he could tell that they were going to surpass the goal, but he had no idea that the event would be record-breaking.

“It certainly seemed like the turnout was good and this year there were these extraordinary matching gifts. I’ve participated in many fundraisers and matching gifts are extremely motivating. You kind of felt that we were going to have a large figure, but this is certainly unprecedented,” he said.

“It really just shows that anything can be done with support and people who rise to the challenge for something as serious as hunger. Never count out the people of Washtenaw County.”

For groups like the Ozone House – which provides assistance to homeless youth – the additional food means that the organization will be able to spend money in other ways to assist its core group.

Katie Doyle, the executive director of Ozone House, was thrilled to hear of the new Rockin' For the Hungry record.

“That’s terrific news. We shop at Food Gatherers every week for homeless youth, so it’ll have an immediate impact for us. Food Gatherers subsidizes almost all of our food for our three locations,” Doyle said.